Section outline

    • Introduction

      There is a strong interest in the ability to organize and share diverse water and environment-related data sets. These can include data sets provided by citizens, local organizations, international organizations, projects, and governments. Globally, the lack of data availability has been mentioned by many experts as the primary reason for the lack of understanding of many water and environmental challenges. SDIs enable sharing of geographic data and metadata in an efficient and flexible way to help overcome such challenges. Through online tools and open standards, users are able to find and re-use existing data sets.

      The following videos introduce you to the knowledge you need on data formats and spatial data infrastructures:


      You can download the related document here.

    • Building a project database

      Before going to the field it is important to store all the data gathered for your study area in a database. If you work for an organisation, the best way is to have spatial database at a server. Here we'll focus on storing the data, project and styles in a GeoPackage that is portable and can easily be shared with others.

      Choosing the map projection for your study

      First you need to determine the projection that you want to use. If you work for a national project, it's best to work in the national projection. If you can't find out what the national projection is, you can choose a UTM or other global projection that is compatible with the GPS device that you'll use in the field. Check the projections supported by the GPS device prior to the fieldwork and choose the projection.

      After choosing the projection, you need to find the EPSG code of the projection:

      Also take care of different projections that are used in GIS. Don't get confused with the projection of layers and the on-the-fly reprojection used in your project:


    • Open Data Resources

      You can find a list of Open Data Resources on another page at GIS OpenCourseWare.

      Here's an example of how to add open data and prepare your fieldwork GIS project: